QUEER ENCOUNTERS ‐ VIENNA TRANS L. A.

As part of an exchange project between the CalArts School of Art and students of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, the exhibition QUEER ENCOUNTERS ‐ VIENNA TRANS L. A. presents around twenty‐five international artists mainly working in a queer‐feminist, anti‐discriminatory and decolonial context.

Most of the artists have been studying at the contextual painting class of Ashley Hans Scheirl (experimental filmmaker and painter, artist of documenta14 in Kassel and Athens) which is known for its focus on identity/gender topics and the trans‐aspect in art (as in the transposition between artistic media, the transition between sexual categories, the transgression of borders limiting the exploration of new libidinous economies etc.). The positions united in this exhibition reflect this transitive aspect in various ways: the encounter of different cultural backgrounds with contemporary western subcultures and socio‐political discourses, the shifting of set pieces of myth, folklore, high and low culture, trash and glamour, the exploration of alternate identities as a means of self‐empowerment, the use of the body as a translator of various languages and codes as well as the prima materia of artistic expression from which further alchemical transmutations of desire emanate. Intergalactic matriarchy, queer utopia, decolonisation of the body, LGBT‐activism, postporn, non‐binary club culture and freesytle rap with white‐cube institutional criticism are just a few keywords which describe the artistic field presented in this exhibition. As such QUEER ENCOUNTERS ‐ VIENNA TRANS L. A. covers a variety of artistic fields such as painting, photography, video, installation and performance with a special emphasis on interdisciplinary methods and collaborations between artists Opening Reception: 28 September 2017, 7 – 9 pm

The exhibition and performance project With Eyes Aghast: Transmannerist Reactions focuses on contemporary queer mannerisms in a critically playful way. The curatorial team’s invitation is aimed at an imaginatively grotesque distortion of the xhibit space and other parts of the Schillerplatz: surprising decorative fine art and architecture forms meet with burlesque and drag formats. Historical mannerism, which marks a rupture in every expression, finds a contemporary mirror in this transdisciplinary project, which pursues what Gustav René Hocke described as “the alchemy of language” in his work Die Welt als Labyrinth (1957, The World as a Labyrinth). Epigrammatically, as it were, the artists’ works counter socioeconomic constraints visible in emerging autocratic forms of power with a queer and decolonizing thrust.The title of the project refers to the mannerist garden Sacro Bosco in Bomarzo where a sphinx welcomes the visitors entering the site with the following words: “Whoever does not wander through this place with raised brows and lips pressed tightly together would not even admire the Seven Wonders of the World.” The world of wonders that manifests itself in an overall mannerist concept challenges its vis-à-vis to creatively and actively intervene in the circumstances given and engage in their highest form, artistic expression and understanding.The garden as a site of the manifestation of – and the debate on – artificiality, the disintegration of existing systems, and the reassessment of given hierarchies will be defined and discussed in a contemporary vein: (trans)mannerism may be understood as absolute empowerment on the basis of breaking away from the prevailing conditions and the creation of a physique of one’s own. Flamboyant: being a cyborg and rooted in creole is what the manifesto amounts to.

PERFORMANCE ART can happen anywhere and for any length of time. RAPID PULSE approaches performance from a visual art perspective. As a potter uses clay, a performance artist uses the body, object, and space to sculpt time-based works of art. At once beautiful or grotesque, meditative or thrilling, solemn or funny, performance art ranges from explorations of the mundane to embodiments of edginess, risk, or pain.